New Orleans
by mars planet
Summary: They always say New Orleáns is a lady. ROMY. RxR


**Disclaimer:** To my dismay, I find myself not owning Marvel. Really, I thought dreams were suppossed to come true. Anyway, If I did own Marvel, I would have never killed Remy off in the Ultimate verse, or wrote him off as a renewed lackey of Mr. Sinister in Earth 616. But I am a firm believer that the Romy will never fail. Long live the Romy!

Anyway, on with the story...

**New Orleáns**

They always say New Orleáns is a lady. Seductive and mysterious, she will trap you with her gaze as soon as you take a couple of steps into the lively streets of the French Quarter or smell the faint trace of the sea in the air while taking a walk next to the Mississipi.

They always say New Orleáns is a lady, however the saying hasn't always been the truth, there was a time when the city was just another city, if a bit more colorful than any other city in all the fifty states of the United States of America. But not anymore, now, I am New Orleáns, I am the city, with all its smells and sights. I am each car, each person, each building. I am a mother, a daughter, a crone, a builder, a maiden, a child, I have lived countless of lives. From the beggining of a small town to the growth of a metropolis. I am no longer human, or mutant, though I once was.

A long and short time ago, I was known as Rogue, the untochable. I was born twenty five years ago, yet I am one of the oldest beings in the planet. It is funny how time works, I am perhaps one of the only living beings that has been present for her birth as a different entity. I have seen myself suffer.

So you see, New Orleáns hasn't always been and has always been a lady. It all began about a year ago in human terms. When I was just another person in the crowd.

Life had never been truly easy for Rogue, she had always been used and scorned for what she had been born as. A mutant, one of the most powerful mutants of the World, however, with the slight disadvantage of been thoroughly afraid of her power. It was lethal, a single touch could kill another persono or at least, make them loose conciousness. Because of this, she had never been able to touch or to feel another person.

All her life she had spent covered up from head to toe, to the point when she couldn't even tell when her powers fisrt emerged. She was raised by a terrorist into believing that anarchy and subterfuge were the common way of life, and it wasn't until she was torced into killing another person through her powers that she understand that all her life she had been wrong, that life was not the way it had been painted. That love and kindness and affection were suppossed to be given by your parents to you. All she had was training.

After that, she ran to join her enemies, the X-Men. There it took time to be accepted, but finally she was. She was able to continue high school and she even helped save the World from a mutant named Apocalypse. That was when she fisrt caught a glimpse of what her powers were really like and she got scared. Frightened to loose her self, she coged to never rely or use her powers again. She had lost control once, she had felt the trae extent of her powers, she was everyone at once. She could feel each and everyone of the people she had touched. She became them.

Even knowing this, she continued on with her life, pretending that nothing had happened, she never told anyone of what she had trully felt, and no one found the need to question her.

During the aftermath of her lose of control, she was kidnapped and taken into the beautiful city of New Orleáns. When she arrived there, she finally felt as if though she was home. The city called to her and welcomed her as mother would a child, and there she found love for the first time.

Even after she was returned to the X-Men, New Orleáns haunted her, and the fiery red and black eyes stared at her everytime she closed her own.

Time passed and Remy LeBeau became an X-Man. He courted her, night and day, day and night. Relentless and ignorant of her denial. Tus he became the first and only one to ever melt the frozen heart . However, the future was black, and Remy LeBeau was not as innocent as Rogue thought. Time came when his role in the Morlock Massacre (which had taken one of her friends life) was revealed. She was horrified, scared. But not of him, but of her. How could she still love a man so much yet treta him so bad?

Her cold shoulder grew with her pain and Remy took offense, he fled the X-Men and travelled to New Orleáns. Rogue followed him, and asked for forgiveness. However, before everything turned out fine, the sinister currents grabbed them both and threatened the city they love so much. Nathaniel Essex had become enamoured with Rogue's powers, and given his fascination with Gambit's, they became the perfect target. Yet, Essex did not truly understand the truth of her mutation and to save her lover's life, she gave up her.

This all happened in the Big Easy, binding Rogue forever to its streets. Because, before she died, her power siphoned the energy of the city, its lives and its object into Rogue's, turning them into hers. She became the city, and the city became her.

In the end, Anna Marie Darkholme, codename Rogue, became what she was fated to be, and New Orleáns gained a concience.

However, not everything is over. Remy LeBeau is still here. I see him everyday and night, and how he is sinking slowly into despair. He has refused me, the city he has always loved. He does not find comfort in my arms anymore.

He is sitting in a high stool in a non-descript bar. Slowly swirling his glass of bourbon, hiding behind the mask of smoke and spices, silently humming to the blues.

"Mah, mah, swamp rat, ya have fallen into despair." A slender figure slides into ther stool next to his. Pale skin decorated by soflty drapped silk.

He is startled by the husky Mississipi accent.

"Chere…? Is that… how?"

"Shh, sugah," a naked finger presses his lips, "Ah've been watching ya. And Ah'm very sad. How can ya let yarself go ta wate?"

He turns his eyes to glass, "I cannot live wit'out you, chere, evert'in gone wrong."

"Swamp rat, Ah am always with ya. Touch is not an obstacle anymore because we don't need it, but ya haven't let mah in. The city loves ya. I love ya."

"But, how, chere? Remy cannot live wit'out you."

"S'all right, sugah, ya did always say N'Awlins is a lady. Never been more truthful."

And with those last words, she vanished into the smoke.

Finally, Remy lifted his glass and swallowed the burning bourbon. He reached incide his pocket coat for a deck of cards, and left the bar, shuffling them along.

He crossed into one of the many lively streets of the French Quarter and finally smiled. Once again he was complete, his lady and him.

"Dey always say New Orleáns is a lady, well, she be Remy's lady now."

**A/N:** Well, this is rather short. But due to my unamountable procrastination, I am never able to finish a story. In fact, I never get farther than the sixth chapter. However, if anyone is interested in continuing this story or at least writing it properly, be my guest. I would love to see it done.

Please review, I'm a sad little girl in search of positive energy...


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